Hines Ward To Join NBC’s Football Night in America Crew

It’s interesting – if not intentional – that NBC Sports would hire both lawyer-contact-hater Mike Florio and former Dirtiest Player in the NFL designee Rodney Harrison for its primetime football show, “Football Night in America.” Contrast is important for talk-show style analysis.

Now, add the former Steeler to the mix – an enemy to both Harrison and Florio, or so it may seem – stir contents and watch them boil.

Former Steelers WR Hines Ward will join all 982 analysts on NBC’s pregame show this season, the same show that once hired Steelers RB Jerome Bettis upon his retirement.

How much Ward cares about the opinions of Florio and former Patriots hit man Harrison remains to be seen, and while it’s most likely they’ll do far more over-emphasized laughing at dumb jokes than combative rivalry-fueled back-and-forth, the dynamic is still interesting between Harrison and Ward.

Florio just reads the injury reports anyway.

Ward and Harrison clearly were two players who saw the physical nature of the game and appreciated it. How much they’ll ever dip into that topic will be worth keeping an eye on this year.